Toppan Printing and Max Speciality Films (MSF) have formed a joint venture in India, as the Japanese company seeks to capitalize on the ‘enormous opportunity’ in the country and that presented by MSF.

MSF is a supplier of specialty packaging, labels, coating and thermal lamination films for the Indian and overseas markets. It is a subsidiary, and flagship manufacturing business, of Max Ventures & Industries Limited (MVIL).

The boards of MSF and MaxVIL have approved the induction of Toppan as a joint venture partner with a 49 percent stake in MSF. Toppan will invest approximately 29 million USD (200 crore INR) through a combination of primary and secondary shares.

Through the joint venture, Toppan will serve as a strategic partner in MSF and share its expertise in managing a global specialty films business, as well as leverage its global sales network. Under this partnership, Toppan, which is a large global buyer of BOPP products, will also serve as a customer of MSF.

Shingo Kaneko, president and representative director of Toppan Printing, said: ‘We see enormous opportunity in India and in this business specifically. MSF has emerged as a front-runner in its unwavering commitment towards research and development, and constantly innovating and upgrading technology to stay at the top of the leaderboard across a wide field of applications from labeling to flexible packaging. We are excited to partner with MSF and help the business scale new heights.’

MSF has undertaken key expansion efforts in the past 12 to 18 months, including an investment of approximately 37 million USD (250 crore INR) to set-up its fifth BOPP line, which will help augment production capacity by a significant 60 percent to over 70,000 tons per annum. A substantial portion of the proceeds from this transaction will be utilized for MSF’s ongoing capacity expansion.

The Toppan transaction will result in MaxVIL’s treasury corpus growing to approximately 43 million USD (290 crore INR), including the expected capital infusion of approximately 22 million USD (148 crore INR) from the New York Life subsidiary and MaxVIL promoters, announced in January 2017.

Analjit Singh, founder and chairman emeritus of Max Group and chairman of MaxVIL said: ‘I am confident that Toppan’s partnership and strategic support will play an instrumental role in setting MSF’s future growth trajectory. We have worked successfully with Japanese companies and are most pleased to continue our friendship with Japan.’

Sahil Vachani, managing director of MaxVIL, added: ‘Toppan’s industrial experience of over 100 years, its expansive global sales network and cutting-edge technological capabilities make it an ideal partner for us at this juncture in MSF’s journey. I am confident the partnership will provide us the necessary global market access and technological support to drive long-term growth in new and existing markets.’